2021 Annual Review - Part 1

With the competition break over Christmas we hope you enjoy our review of the London Heathside year. We’ve broken it into 2 parts with the first starting in Post-Christmas lockdown and ending in Summer sunshine.

January

Hopefully not to be repeated in 2022 but we started 2021 with large events and Parkrun remainng banned and the only events were virtual. Training was limited to outdoors only

Virtual racing returned with the EA Virtual Road Relay with 13 Heathsiders taking part and the Club finishing in 52nd place just missing out on progression to the Regional Round.

Individually Madeline Minson finished 11th in the British Masters Virtual 10km race.

February

The Country continued in lockdown however the Juniors excelled in the 3rd Middlesex Junior Virtual Races which were organised by the Club.

March

The club finished in 24th place overall in the British Virtual Mile Race.

April

At long last Lockdown restrictions were lifted and in preparation for our return to Finsbury Park track the Club organised a volunteer day for a full spring clean of the track

Physical races at long last returned and George Gurney finished 1st in the Olympic Park 10 km while Julia Bijl was 1st woman at the Kempton Racecourse 10km.

Thomas Archer ran at the Comeback 5000s at Battersea Park the first post lockdown Track open meeting.  He then set a new Club overall record for the 5000m of 14:38 in Manchester.

Jack Davis Black won the U17 race at the postponed ATW XC Race at Merchant Taylors School.

The Club held an Open 100m Sprint Tournament at Finsbury Park, one of the first post-lockdown track open meetings . Cian O’Donnell set the fastest time by a Heathsider of 10.89s, with Chloe Savva (U17W) the fastest woman in 13.07s.

Suraya Frost (U13G) set an early marker for the season ahead producing a UK leading time in the 70mH. Gabriel Edwards (U11B) also introduced himself by breaking a 15 year old U13B Club record in the 75m.  Imani Quamina also set a new U15G 75m Club Record.

Sarah Swinhoe came first in the New Forest Trail Half Marathon

May

Peter Crockford returned from injury running in one of a series of socially distanced Open meetings at Harrow, as Athletic Clubs sought to offer athletes the chance to compete again.

Rebecca Bunting was first at the South Devon Costal Marathon

A number of Heathsiders took part in the Centurion Thames Path 100 with Dominic Jones the first Heathsider home.

George Gurney and Kieran Morris recorded top 3 finishes in the RunThrough race in the Olympic Park.

Julia Kelk achieved a PB finishing the 10th woman in the Dorney half Marathon while Rebecca Bunting finished 3rd overall and 1st woman at the Three Forts Marathon.

Competitive Club Athletics finally returned with the Middlesex Youth Athletics League, although initially to aid social distancing the meetings were held over 2 days with one day Track only and the other Field only. Our Juniors blew the opposition away winning every age group. 11 Meeting records fell, including Suraya Frost (U13G 70mH), Etienne Munday (U17M HJ), Edward Metcalf (U13B Javelin) and Trey Corlis (U15B 80mH)

Three club records were set at an Open Meeting in Bromley, Suraya Frost (U13G 70mH), Adrian Essex (V70 300mH which was also the all time fastest UK V70 time) and Thomas Archer (U20M 1500m) which he repeated soon after. Gabriel Edwards lowered his U13B 75m record at Mile End.

Sarah Swinhoe finished 5th overall at the Devil’s Life 50k. While Michael Kennedy finished 7th in the London to Brighton 100km.

James Hamblin set a new Hammer Club record with 55.61m, 22m further than the previous record. He promptly broke it again 8 days later with 57.38m

June

Adrian Essex set a new UK Age record in the 300m Hurdles at the Midland Masters Championships and also posted UK age group leading times for the 100m and 200m.

The 2nd MYAL meeting was held again,and like the first, it was split over two days, with Field events at Perivale this time and track events at Finsbury Park. Another great performance saw the Club winning all but one of the age groups with Heathsiders winning 21 events. There were 6 league records broken plus also national age group leading times.

Seyfu Jamaal won silver in the 5,000m at the Southern Championships in Bedford with George Gurney 5th. Eva Divetain was 5th in the women’s race. James Hamblin won Bronze in the Hammer.

A host of PB’s and Club records were set at the County Schools Championships with Imani Quamina (75mH) and Trey Corlis (100m) taking the London Junior Titles. In the LICC which acted as the Middlesex Trials Martha Jolly jumped a 54cm PB of 4.98m to break the club U15 Girls Club record. Leon Seale also set a big PB in the 200m of 22.26.

Dulux kindly volunteered to repaint the Finsbury Park pavilion.

The first SAL fixture was held at Lee Valley, the Club competing against Enfield and Haringey, Barnet, Orion and VP&TH. Heathsider’s recorded 10 first places and 11 second places finishing the meeting in 1st place.

Suraya Frost set 3 PB’s in Long Jump, 100m and 70mH which was also a new U13G club record.

Adrian Essex moved up to the UK’s No 1 ranked V70 after an excellent performance at the Madeira masters meeting. Back in the UK Andrew Jones set a new V55 record in the 400m of 60.59s

Chris Holmes came 1st in the Lee Valley 50km race in a time of 3:14.20. Rebecca Bunting came 3rd overall and was the first female to finish the Puretrail Tsunami Marathon in Cornwall. Dom Jones was 2nd in the 16 mile race.

Seyfu Jamaal won the Sri Chimnoy 5k in Battersea Park recording a time of 14:45, Sarah Swinhoe set a new Club V55 record of 19:35.

The month ended with another MYAL meeting this time just on a single day hosted by local rivals Highgate Harriers. This was the first meeting that included U11s who were getting their first taste of competitive athletics. The Club won 5 of the 8 age groups to finish tied in 1st place with Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers. There were 15 event wins and 5 new club records set.

Trey Corlis, representing London Schools, finished 7th in the ESAA Combined Events South East Regional Final with a total of 2214 pts. He also set a new U15B 80mH club record.

And with that the first half of the year was completed with things pretty well almost back to normal. In the 2nd part we will cover the conclusion to the MYAL Season, a medal studded County Championships and the long awaited return to Marathon and Cross Country racing